Veteran Australian actor Rod Taylor has died at his home in Los Angeles, just a few days short of his 85th birthday.
Rodney Sturt Taylor was born in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe on January 11, 1930. He was given his middle name after his great great uncle, explorer Captain Charles Sturt.
Taylor started his career as a radio actor (pre-television) and at one time was Tarzan on the Australian version of the radio serial.
In the mid-50s he relocated to Hollywood and scored parts in the movies ‘Hell On Frisco Bay’ (1955) and ‘Giant’ (1956) and once had a guest role in the cowboy TV show ‘Cheyenne’.
Taylor’s first lead role made him a star. He played George Wells in the original movie adaptation of HG Wells ‘The Time Machine’. When the movie was remade in 2002, another Australian, this time Guy Pearce, played the role.
Rod Taylor also had the lead role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Taylor’s last movie role was as Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in 2009.
Rod Taylor died from a heart attack at his Los Angeles home.
